About two weeks ago, I was invited to a dinner sponsored by FoodBuzz (see banner ad to the left) at none other than hater of all food bloggers Mario Batali’s restaurant, Lupa. I was excited because a good number of my close friends (including these two), whose food opinions I trust, despite my disliking Batali himself – so much that I’ve blogged about how much I dislike him before. But heck, I’m always game to eat good food and I wanted to meet the FoodBuzz people!
I wasn’t in much of a social mood unfortunately when I did arrive at the restaurant, but lucky for you, that meant I spent a lot of time with my camera aimed at the food.
The menu, not just for posterity but so I could remember what we ate.
The first course, verdure, salumi e pesce which my very basic Italian tells me (and reinforces why I detest Batali: hi, does everyone know what we’re eating? No, because we don’t all speak Italian, genius! I might even be translating this wrong) is vegetables, [cured] meats and fish. I was excited about the cured meats because I’ve heard that Batali’s places cure their own meats, and I wasn’t disappointed.
(Most of the pictures are blurry not just because I was drinking wine, but because it was dark and I didn’t want to prevent my fellow food bloggers from eating for too long!)
The meats on this platter were soft, tender, and quite tasty.
The rest of the dishes from this first course:
Blurry chickpea/falafel balls – what is with Batali and chickpeas?! These were okay…
Here I must pause to note something. I understand the concept of “family style” having grown up in an Asian household. But with a large group of people (10-12, I noted) many of whom hadn’t met each other before this night, it really did not work out. Though Sue of Food Network Musings was good about passing plates around to my end of the table, it was hard to snag pictures of what was being served in the middle of the table, and still difficult to try everything. I definitely missed out on a few dishes that everyone said was good! Boo… my fault for choosing to sit at the end, however! I’m guessing this was Lupa’s policy for such a large group; they also have a set menu if you have this big of a group (see website for more specific details).
Some root vegetable that I claimed was yuca, but Zach of Midtown Lunch corrected me because yuca is ginormous apparently? (I’ve never seen it whole, just eaten it maybe twice; it had that mealy texture!). I forget what we settled on it being, though! (Any help?)
Gosh, how blurry these pictures came out is REALLY annoying me! I also have no idea what this is, I didn’t happen to get to try any…
Beets in a sauce – these were okay. Ben of FoodBuzz told us we haven’t had beets until we’ve had beets in California – so I guess one more trip to California won’t hurt 😉 (this is a joke. I love San Francisco and would love to go back sometime soon, if only to feed my bento love)
Foccacia… quite yummy, but a bit dense with regard to the rest of our meal!
Our second course, capricci with cauliflower ragu… Ragu is actually just means “sauce”. (And prego means “You’re welcome”.) While I know there are fans of this dish out there, I wasn’t too impressed, and though I don’t want to speak for him, BS of Endless Simmer didn’t seem too impressed either. The pasta, clearly homemade and fresh, was cooked perfectly until you got to the center, where it was on the uncooked side of al dente. The cauliflower flavor didn’t shine through as much as I’d have liked – nowhere near as much as Sarah’s description suggests.
I have never met a gnocchi I liked, until… Well, I find the idea of potato pasta a bit offensive; I rarely enjoy mixing carbs, and potatos, pasta, it’s a very heavy concept. However, this third course – ricotta gnocchi with sweet fennel sausage was by far my favorite course of the night. It was light, airy, pillowy even! little clouds of yum, and I am hard pressed to really say anything bad about the pasta. It was, basically, what gnocchi should be, I think (I have had gnocchi prior to this maybe twice in my life). The only minor complaints would be the tiny amount of sausage, but perhaps more would have detracted from the gnocchi’s pillowiness, I can imagine that being the case.
For our “meat” course, we had our choice of three things: fish, pork shoulder, or chicken. Being foodies, only one person chose the chicken, but she didn’t sit near enough to me for me to snap a photo nor ask her how she liked it! (Cupcakes Take the Cake, anyone want to comment on the chicken??? Thanks!). This is a photo of the guy sitting to my left – a friend of the FoodBuzz team – ‘s fish. I didn’t hear any complaints…
And here is my pork shoulder with fico d’india & ginger. I asked the waiter if I could have that without ginger; he said no. The ginger didn’t show through very well; I was happy. And honestly, again, Batali feels the need to tell us it’s fico d’india instead of what it is, prickly pear (the waiter helped us out there), though Google tells us that fico is fig. Um, okay, whatever. I was pleased with this dish insomuch that the meat was, of course, super tender, and the sweet fruit wasn’t overwhelmingly so- it actually had a nice tart kick to it. But the meat by itself was painfully boring and bland – it needed the interesting fruit to even hope to intrigue the tastebuds. Mehhh.
Here again the communal style of serving failed miserably: these were the “sides” they bestowed upon us to share. Would it really have been so much trouble to scoop a little of each onto each of our plates before serving them? As such, I’m not sure what these are… I only tried one, I think it was baby bok choi. Sad is me.
For the next two courses, formaggi (cheese) and dolci (literally, sweet, but meaning dessert), we went back to completely communal.
Some hard and some stinky cheeses, crusty baguette, candied Meyer lemon peels in the small dish furthest away. Nothing stood out. Sure, the parmesan was good with the lemon peels, but… there was nothing unusual or interesting about the cheese platter. The waiter didn’t even bother to try to explain to us which cheeses were which.
Biscotti
Giant ice cream ball with a chocolate shell and hazelnuts. You know what this reminded us of? Ferrero Rocher. That’s not a bad thing, I actually really liked this dessert, but it was unoriginal at best.
This buttermilk pannacotta – well, we know how much I love pannacotta (second only to tiramisu in my favorite desserts category!) – was really good, especially with the fruit. However I really hated the peppercorns- I don’t know what the heck I thought they were, but biting into one was an unpleasant surprise for me. Ah well. I learned my lesson and ate the pannacotta without it.
And yes, each of these desserts were meant to be shared in the whole group. Am I selfish? Perhaps. Just with cold/flu season in full swing, and all these people I literally had just met, it made me a bit uncomfortable, but it became apparent that the only person eating these two desserts with me was the guy next to me who wasn’t coughing or sneezing so I just ate from the other side as him. Not too big of a deal, but germaphobes will definitely not be happy with this arrangement for large dinners.
Overall, I really shouldn’t complain, as they say: free dinner at a Batali place?! But I’m not blaming our hosts for the meal! It’s Batali’s fault. The guy who detests food bloggers, despite them loving him! Perhaps the few that don’t like him or his food – such as myself – are the reason he doesn’t like us as a whole? Nahhh… I doubt my dislike of him could put a dent in his rotund exterior of self confidence.
I also should probably not complain because someone told me “Unless you can do it better, keep your mouth shut” – well, I CAN do everything better… more suited to MY palate. So, if I don’t like something, and if you’re new to the blog, I don’t pull punches. I’m not going to lie to you and say I liked a meal simply because it was free: you get my honest and unadulterated, unpretty opinion. Sometimes I LOVE something… and you’ll hear about that, too, of course!
Yvo says: The atmosphere made for a nice place to eat, however, and this may be because of the size of the group and the gratuitity possible being built into the meal, the service was appalling. Not that we were ignored: I didn’t need anything, actually, so I never asked, but our new silverware was all but thrown at us, and our plates just dumped in front of us. Questions were met with haughty sighs (did they take lessons from Batali himself?, I wonder) and perhaps some eye rolling behind our backs. The food was mostly decent to some outstanding notes, but meh. I’d really have to go back and order items on my own terms to get a better feel for the food, but until that happens (like when I start making a ton more money!), I’ll give it a solid:
slightly better than middle of the road
Hillary says
Looks like a wonderful meal!
MissGinsu says
Nice photos. Mine came out much darker.
I liked the potato-bacalao appetizer and the shaved brussels sprouts with cheese. The cheeses were nice (although you’re right… some explanation or names would have been nice).
Aside from the very pleasant company at the table, I think the desserts and apps were probably my favorite parts of the meal.
Zach says
the “yuca” was salsify. 🙂
Adriana Velez says
Glad to have photos! I have to agree with you on the pork. Great sauce and the texture was nice, but the meat itself was flavorless. I missed those bok choy dishes, too. And yeah, the cheeses were nothing special and came with no explanation. I kinda like my cheese plate to come with a couple of stories, you know?
Yes, that gnocchi was lovely!
I remember the salsify — I’ll have to look for some to cook at home.
Brendan Spiegel says
nice summary! Totally articulates my feelings about Batali – and glad to hear I didn’t get you sick over the panacotta
kayoko says
i enjoyed your rant on Batali immensely. you are hilarious. i will agree with you on all counts, but have to admit that i am kinda obsessed with the food at Babbo. girl, you’re missin out! Lupa is totally booboo in comparison. too salty and mediocre. meh is the correct observation.
great report!